Several generations may have shared a cave shelter as a home until it was taken over by a stronger tribe or group. As the cave shelters filled with people, they began to find other forms of shelter, but a good cave was the best home for thousands of years. This is where I think the instinct part comes into play, just like you don’t have to teach people or animals some things, they just do it naturally. The instinct that some of us have about caves is for the comfort of being in a cave. When I got into that hole along the river bank, I was not afraid. Even when I fell down the hole that I couldn’t touch the bottom, there was still no fear. Excitement and curiosity dominate any fear that may have been present. Much older now with less excitement and curiosity, he has allowed a bit of healthy fear to creep in. Fear of falling or getting hurt, not of the dark.

The speluncaphobia is the fear of caves or claustrophobia, the fear of nearby places. If I know someone is claustrophobic, I don’t take them to caves. I will only refer to him as John, in the next poem. I think he was just mildly claustrophobic, if that’s possible.

Panic under the mountain

As I lay in tight drag panic, frustration

flushed and overwhelmed with humiliation,

an energy drink and hypertension occurred

a very serious problem, I concluded.

Three hours of climbing and crawling we had arrived

Two hours and two tight crawls or I’d succumb

the five hour loop with parallel trips looked like fun

Until someone leaves it, has done it, enough.

Could you take it through the tightest grip?

He placed it in the middle and prayed it didn’t freeze

He took off all his gear, head first with his feet in the air,

everything was silent as he struggled, I heard him curse.

Little by little it opened up to easy crawling

when I joined him and we proceeded through the little

Mason-Dixon Passage to the Volcano Room

as he spoke to take his mind out of the gloom.

One more drag, the main room is not far away,

on leaving Pettyjohn’s cave he insisted a lot,

a crawl uphill and turns near the end

so your body can make that awkward curve.

Through twists and turns we ran ahead

Not a word said, it’s better not to say it.

When I reached the entrance and climbed into the light,

it was not to be found, in the car, out of sight.